Open Thread

As scary as this article is, I don’t think Michelle Bachmann will be the VP selection for the 2012 GOP ticket. I think she’ll be at the top of the ticket figuring out who her running mate will be at this time next year.

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I am with you. I think she has a chance to be at the top of the ticket. I don’t agree with her, but she has a team that seems determined. Also we need to remember that she is a woman and that has a lot of appeal to some in the same manner that Obama did. Some voters want to help make history.

If Bachmann becomes president, I’m not going to hide in a bunker, I’m going to call my stockbroker! I already know where a President Bachmann would take to U.S. economy — to Hooverism, and straight into another depression! And depressions are good for people who like to buy stocks so cheap they’re almost free! Can you imagine getting 100 shares of IBM (currently $160 a share) for 50 cents! I can! Hey, I’m not gonna vote for that nut, but if she gets elected, well, from my point of view, worse things could happen. And as one who views stock speculating (I wouldn’t stoop to dignify what I do by calling it “investing”) as a zero-sum game, what it boils down to is, when the economy tanks and I’m able to buy stocks so cheap it’s almost like stealing them, most of the people I’m stealing them from are rich Republicans! You think I have qualms of conscience about that???

I stopped owning mutual funds within a year or two after I began investing nearly 30 years ago. Why? Because mutual funds don’t make money for investors — it’s been said that 80% of mutual funds underperform the market. So why own them? I don’t.

I don’t own any ETFs, either. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. The basic ETF is one that tracks the market, for example a basket of securities comprising the S&P 500. Why do I think that’s a bad idea? Because if your investment goal is simply to match the market, your portfolio will grow only as fast as the economy. I try to do better than that.

Statistics show that individual stocks have consistently outperformed all other investments, bar none, over the last 200 years. I prefer to pick my own individual stocks, and I’ve done extremely well by doing that; about 90% of my portfolio consists of market winnings, only 10% is money I had to earn. But I won’t kid you about what stockpicking requires: You have to spend a significant amount of time reading how-to books and information about the economy and individual stocks you’re interested in. For me, it’s a serious hobby — so serious that I can do the critical mathematical calculations in my head in a few seconds. That’s sort of necessary because stock prices and market conditions are constantly changing, and I often make my buy-sell decisions “from the gut” in 30 seconds or less. That’s how fast things move in today’s world.

An ETF that tracks the market average is probably a better choice for the non-investor than throwing darts at lists of mutual funds. But an ETF, by definition, can’t and won’t outperform (or underperform) the market. And for many investors, that means going nowhere.

What stocks do I like right now? I’m not really into giving or receiving “hot” stock tips, but I’ll share my current thinking about the market and tell you some of the stocks I currently own.

About a week ago, Barron’s said the market is overvalued by 43%. Without going into details of the rationale behind this number, I’m not sure the percentage is right, but I — like most serious investors — tend to think the market is either fully valued or overvalued, which sets up stocks for a decline in the near future. Why? Because corporate profits, which have been strong on one-time productivity gains, probably will weaken over the next year or two, and because the market marches in tandem with earnings, this strongly suggests weaker stock prices ahead. This is not the time to be spending your cash hoard on pricey stocks. Wait a few months and prices are likely to look better for the buyer.

The market has been selling off for the last seven weeks, so if you haven’t already cashed out your profitable positions, I’d sit on them and wait for the next upturn. Unless the Republicans are stupid enough to force the Treasury into default, which I think they are, we’re probably at or near the bottom of the current market slide and should see a minor uptick soon, unless things go to hell in Europe.

Overall, I think the market will quiver sideways for most of the rest of this year, which generally speaking, means sitting on the stocks you already own and being cautious about trying to trade.

As a general observation, small caps and growth stocks have had a huge run and are overvalued, and the best buys in the market today are dividend-paying blue chips, including defensive stocks like those in food processing and household goods.

Here are some stocks I like and currently own:

Chevron (CVX) — yeah, I bought it $30 a share ago, and oil stocks probably have peaked and will decline with crude prices from here, but Chevron is the best of the big-oil stocks and if you want to own an integrated major oil E&P company, this is the best one. Don’t buy it now, wait for weakness.

I also own Exxon-Mobil (XOM), which is okay, but I expect this stock to be a plodder, not a rocket stock.

Boeing (BA) — I bought this one about $10 a share ago, but it’s still a solid stock, and one to consider if the market pukes and it gets dragged down from the current level by a broad market decline. Boeing has had problems in bringing its next-generation aircraft to market, and these difficulties have held back its stock price, creating an undervaluation situation. Boeing is just beginning a new product cycle so its sales, revenues, earnings, dividends, and share price should all trend upward over the coming 10 years or so. This is a good buy-and-hold stock if you can get it below $70 or in the low $70, provided you’re not an income-oriented investor who needs a fat dividend.

Lockheed-Martin (LMT) — this stock not only pays a hefty (by today’s standards) and steadily rising dividend, but looks seriously undervalued to me, setting up potentially fat capital gains. Why? L-M is the prime contractor for the F-35 fighter, which could produce a trillion dollars of business over the next 30 years. Even if the Pentagon budget is significantly cut this airplane will be built in significant numbers for U.S. and foreign air forces.

I’ve already mentioned the consumer sector as a good place to park money in these unsettled times. Several stocks in this sector I don’t own but plan to buy when I get my inheritance from the late Pop Rabbit, who was almost 100 years old, include Coca Cola (KO), a fairly expensive stock but in my opinion a better long-term investment than Pepsi (PEP) and both of those are far better than any of the other beverage stocks; Nucor (NUE), the best of the steel companies, and for that matter, my favorite cyclical stock; Genuine Parts (GPC), which makes replacement parts for cars, a counter-cyclical stock that does well when the economy is shitty and people are hanging onto (and repairing) their old cars instead of buying new ones (and, if you’ve been paying attention, the used-car market is red-hot right now); and among the food-processers my favorites are Campbell’s Soups (CPB) and Heinz (HNZ), and in household products, Kimberly-Clark (KMB) (makers of Kleenex), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Procter & Gamble (PG), and Avon Products (AVP). I like all of these stocks at today’s prices, although you know, prices change daily and they may not be a good deal a week or month from now.

In the pharmaceutical sector, most of the stocks are pretty crappy, and I would specifically avoid Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK); my pharma picks are Abbott Labs (ABT), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Novartis (NVP).

The best dividend yields are in telecom and tobacco. My telecom picks are Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), with Verizon the better company between the two; and in tobacco, I’d go with Altria (MO) and Philip Morris (PM), but I’d bet cautiously in this area because these are not growth stocks. You use them to boost the overall yield of your portfolio, but don’t go overboard with that.

I don’t much like utility stocks right now, for the same reason I don’t like bonds at all, but it’s okay to put 5% to 8% of your portfolio into utilities if you pick good utility stocks. In my opinion, the best ones are Avista (AVA) and Unisource Energy (UNS).

What I’m generally looking for is reliable and steadily growing dividends and a current yield above 3%. You won’t always get the latter; sometimes you have to trade off yield to get quality. The king of all dividend stocks is McDonald’s (MCD), an expensive stock that nevertheless deserves a judiciously-sized position in your portfolio. At $80-plus a share, I’d buy 100 shares of MCD for a portfolio in the $150,000 to $200,000 range. If you have only $75,000 to $100,000 of stocks, buy 50 or 60 shares of MCD. It pays around 3%.

Here’s the thing about dividend-paying big-cap stocks. Many of them have P/Es at or below the market norm of about 15 to 17. Many of them are yielding above 3%. I won’t say they’re undervalued, at least not severely so, but they’re not overvalued. Just about all market pundits agree these stocks are the best values in the current market. They’re also excellent long-term-hold stocks. You simply buy them and own them and watch your dividend income increase year after year. And that income is tax-favored. You’ll get modest but steady capital gains with these stocks, and those gains aren’t taxed unless and until you sell them, and there’s no reason to sell them anytime soon.

So, that’s Roger Rabbit’s investing advice for the cautious investor who has some cash and wants to generate some income while minimizing market risks. You’re hard-pressed to get 3% from a long-term bank CD these days. You can get 4% from a diversified stock portfolio with income growth and a good shot at long-term capital gains. That being so, why would anyone put money into CDs, bonds, or other fixed-income vehicles? Defensive blue chip stocks paying dividends of 3% or more beat those investments on every count.

For those of you who are completely ignorant about investing statistics, “total return” refers to combined dividends and capital gains, and I think a reasonable TR goal for today’s market is 10% a year. Compare that to the 1/10th of 1% that many banks pay on savings accounts. It’s 100 times as much. Hey, if you hate your money enough to let banks use it, would you loan it to me? I’ll invest it for you and pay you a whole big fat 1% a year, which is 10 times what you’re getting from the bank, and I’ll keep the other 9% for myself. You take all the risk, I get 90% of the profit, same as how Wall Street works. Does that sound fair to you?

About a week ago, Barron’s said the market is overvalued by 43%. Without going into details of the rationale behind this number, I’m not sure the percentage is right, but I — like most serious investors — tend to think the market is either fully valued or overvalued, which sets up stocks for a decline in the near future.

Roger, this was the take back in January/February 2011. I told you then I took most of my money out of the stock market. Ask the idiotic databaze crazy one for my original post. We have my wife’s investments still in place just to hedge some “bets”. I went to more conservative vehicles even though your moronic libtardo friends BRAGGED how great the market is doing under Obummer. Glad to see you agree with Puddy.

Oh yeah, buy some GOLD! Why does Soros reportedly have around 11 tons of it?

10

Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:

Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders that turned out to be counterfeits from China.

Wired reports the chips weren’t only low-quality fakes, they had been made with a “back-door” and could have been remotely shut down at any time.

Wow Obummer’s military industrial complex wasn’t too bright here. Good thing we’re buying American under Obummer eh libtardo morons? If this happened under GWBush there would be screaming and shouting by the libtardo press and HA would have a banner ‘headline’.

11

Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:

That is what readers are asking after seeing an NYT article in which several economists expressed surprise over the continuing weakness of the economy. What is surprising in this picture? What sector did they expect to give a boost to the economy that fell short?

Wow, should I trust a nobel prize winning economist who was right, or idiots like Puddy and republicnas fools who have no clue about economics and have been wrong most of the time?

Hmm, tough choice here. And this is coming from Puddy, the Bush supporter – remember Bush? The guy who caused the worst economic conditions since the great depression – and took the largest surplus in histroy and turned it into the largest deficit in history.

With regard to Bachman, I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that we are dismissing her far too lightly. While there are a fair number of crazys who somehow have managed to get a law degree and a license to practice (like that wingnut dentist from California who is still pushing the birther nonsense), Bachman isn’t a complete lightweight, having earned a masters in taxation.

What we have to do is be prepared for the coming attack which is trying to blame all our economic ills on Democrats, going back to Jimmy Carter, then skipping over two Bush presidencies to tag Clinton with a little blame. She’s a full-fledged believer in Friedman’s Chicago school of economics and the Laffler curve, her economic principles go back to 1980 Reaganomics.

What we have to do is not to wait for those attacks, but to give a full-court press over the next year about how the rise of big banks and the wall street investment firms over the past 30 years has allowed them to take over the economy, making themselves extraordinarily wealthy in the process.

I finally got around to renting “Inside Job” and saw it last night, it was very well done – and actually pretty even-handed in it’s criticisms of both Republican and Democratic politicians for essentially delegating control over our nation’s economic and regulatory scheme to the “revolving door” between the banks and investment firms, the treasury department, the SEC, and the Federal Reserve.

I listen to this station for traffic only, but with this guy on in the 9am to noon time slot, I’ll find my traffic info elsewhere. This morning, he gushed and gushed and gushed about Bachmann, Perry, and all the Republican candidates, and constantly referred to the “the left” in a moderately derisive way. This on a supposedly news station.

What next on 1000am? The gospel hour from 8am to 9am? Sheesh. There’s enough corporate right wing crap (a double redundancy!) on the radio already.

Good thing my smart phone has the ability to check traffic; I’d rather pull over to look at that than listen to this tripe.

Taibbi’s piece is excellent, but kos nails a credible path to the R nomination.

I saw Inside Job a few months ago at the Lynwood on Bainbridge. It was a GREAT movie. The bad news (of course) is: in order to see Inside Job, you have to see it at an independent art house like the Lynwood — or order / rent it.

Stimulus too small? The stimulus was not correctly applied. Did you miss Obummer’s reply

No Such Thing as Shovel-Ready Projects”

Of course you were Rip Van Winkling when that comment was made by de preznit. It has nothing to the stimulus being too small. It has everything to bad academic econoomic theories by professors who have given up and went back to academia.

Thanks for proving you love the “reservation”.

19

Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:

A concerning situation near Omaha, Neb. took a new twist early Sunday when a temporary levee protecting the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station failed, forcing the facility to turn briefly to emergency generated power.

A Bachmann presidency would be disastrous for the country, but an unending source comedy for Stepen Colbert. So, I’m ambivalent about it. Obama’s just not that funny.

The world would watch in fear and loathing as the ‘elitists’ (Democrats) would once again have to debate evolution, gravity, Jesus in the constitution, and dozens of other inanities, as the billionnaires and the Supreme Court solidify their totalitarian grip.

# 15: Robertson’s campaign was scuttled rather quickly by revelations that his father (a Senator) had intervened to have him taken off a boat bound for Korea – he later ended up in Korea anyway, but as the officer in charge of making sure the Officer’s Club was stocked with liquor. Since this was when the Republicans were planning to argue that only a military veteran could serve as Commander-In-Chief, it was seen as an embarrasment and he quickly dropped out.

Bachman can combine the Evangelical and Tea Party factions, something that Romeny can’t. Her biggest potential competitors in that arean were Huckabee, who has since dropped out, and Palin, who may not run because it would subject her to more intense scrutiny and force her to give up a lot of money. Palin is worth more, to herself and her party, as a person who “might” run – once she announces, her worth will be decided at the polls, which may not be nearly as kind to her.

What worries me about Bachman is that I don’t think we are taking her seriously enough as a potential candidate.

I’m seeing a repeat of the Reagan 1980 scenario here, where Democrats thought that nobody would really be crazy enough to adopt Reagan’s “voodoo economics” (and a bad actor to boot) as President. But Reagan won, in large part becuase of situations mostly out of our control in Iran & Afganistan, and a stubborn economic recovery.

But we are still paying for Reagan’s economic policies, and if Bachman got into office (especially while Republicans still controlled the House) it would be a national disaster, taking yet another generation to overcome.

(Note: David Stockman, Reagan’s own Budget Director, said that if Carter’s economic and budget policies had been followed, the budget would have been balanced by 1986. But because we had twelve straight years of Republicans in the White House, it wasn’t until 2000 that the budget was balanced – just in time for Bush to screw things up again).

25

Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:

What I love is how you leftist pinheads can’t attack a person on their ideas, it’s attack by smear and slander.

Let’s see… A little over a week ago it was yelling loser beta boi’s own words talling gman that gays are less than 10% of the population. Yet with that piddly minority, we have to accept gay marriage or else. Well we say what gay pride did right. Now were those rock throwers real “anarchists” or were they part of the librul elite gay peeps? Who knows.

We see Bachmann brought 5 children to full term and raised them along with 23 foster children. She is against abortion So what do the leftist pinhead moronics in the libtardo lamestream media do? They ask asinine questions about how many children did Michelle abort while having those five children? And you fools wonder why we who think right laugh at your slander and smear attempts?

Then we see Michelle and her husband Marcus have to put up with the latest in gay smear. Search it out leftist loons. See that’s all in the DUMMOCRAPTIC playbook. Throw out some stupid lie then run to the press and tell Marcus to prove you aren’t gay. Well leftist loons of HA prove to me you aren’t gay like windie, boeing bob, gmai, ekim and others here? Well we know ekim is into goats!

There is real anger out there in the voting masses. But unlike the anarchists of the DUMMOCRAPTIC party, you don’t see them vandalizing plate glass windows, starting fires, destroying private property, trashing city streets, burning down Field of Dreams homes, burning down UW animal labs, etc. etc. etc. It’s the leftist loon who demonstrates his “pack mentality” when they get together and “march.”.

You know when Chris Mathews praises you it’s the kiss of libtardo death. We are siing BDS Bachmann Derangement Syndrom on this blog BIG TIME.

I expect the NY Slimes will perform a full court press to see her “emails” like they stupidly did on Sarah palin. That came and went faster than the IQ test on rujax.

Anytime she makes a gaffe, it’s trumpet. Anytime Obummer makes a gaffe and he has 100 times more enablers, it’s glossed or skipped over!

What is it with Republican candidates, that they demanded that they be handled with kid gloves by the media?

Fox News Chris Wallace was forced to go on the air to apologize to Michele Bachman for a question he asked her in an interview. The question? He asked her if she was a “flake”, since others had characterized her as such.

Gee, Fox News contributors regularly ask lots of worse questions of Democratic politicians – even when they are not in the room to answer them. Why do the Republicans think they are entitled to a skate for free? Besides, it gives them the perfect opportunity to respond to, and refute the charges.

In Bachman’s case, she didn’t say she accepted the apology, only that the question was “insulting” and she had “bigger things to talk about”.

We’re in the hight of the silly season, it’ll probably be Mittens V. Obama come election time. I think the question is how much are they going to have to give Bachmann to win over her and her supporters?

Wow we’re discussing Bachmann and the crazed databaze loser is still discussing wireless payloads, something he proved tot he world he has no clue about, not certified in the technology, and has no understanding or idea about encryption.

Yet with that piddly minority, we have to accept gay marriage or else.

Uhhh.. Moron???? Aren’t you a member of a minority in this country?

Majority rule, minority rights?

14th ammendment? Everyone treated equally under the law?

YES, you have to accept gay marriage because not only do gays and lesbians have the RIGHT to be treated equally under the law just like they have the RIGHT to free speech and RIGHT to bear arms – gay marriage is being ACCEPTED by more and more people.

I remember right wingers whining about Obama’s lack of military service.

I don’t see military service on Bachmann’s resume. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

Bachmann is a woman. Hence she is not REQUIRED to register ya moron! As I remember about the SSS and women

While women officers and enlisted personnel serve with distinction in the U.S. Armed Forces, women have never been subject to Selective Service registration or a military draft in America. Women who served in the past, and those who serve today in ever increasing numbers, all volunteered for military service.

Obummer had to register, women don’t have to ya moron! So if she chose to stay at home and raise five of her own children and 23 foster children, that’s her coice ya moron!

Yeah it was priceless indeed to see you admit that no one gives a rat’s ass about your blather carried in the payload of http packets that are in turn the payload of wi-fi frames, ethernet frames, whatever..

Keep pretending that anyone gives more than a “rat’s ass” about it. It makes for good laughs.

Still playing your silly blame game @38. Refuting a silly yelling loser beta boi negative. Keep looking for one. You on the other hand haven’t admitted you have no clue on wireless headers or wireless payload. You get your information from the ‘nets, while I and trained and approved. So step up and be first and admit you are a wireless loser, who’s payload is monomaniacal and chronologically deficient!

Yes loser beta boi you are braindead. She raised 28 children and you are concerned she didn’t volunteer. Who would have raised those 28 children ya moron? When did you volunteer? Oh wait… you are on your silly ASS right now!

47

Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:

@16: Bad economic theories – you mean all the crap you put out there that has never proven to work – or all the crap that the republican rpesidential nominees and the republican party are parroting….such as the Laffer curve (never worked – but republicans keep trying to sell it) and lower taxes on the rich stimulates the economy (just the opposite has been true).

Thanks for the laughs – but I will stick with a real economist who has a nobel prize over your “fake” comments and the republican lies.

Keep drinking the kool-aid of the republican mess, Puddy. You are not bright enough to actually understand real facts and real econonomic analysis.

Puddy is defending Regent University…hahaha What will Puddy defend next? That the world is flat?

Puddy is intellectually bankrupt and emotionally immature – I wonder where the insecurity comes from that Puddy has to call everyone names? It reminds me of a four-year old little boy who is mad at his classmates and the best he can come up with are “bad names” for people he doesn’t like.

@2. Roger Rabbit spews: —————————– Keep right on dreaming, rodents do eat paper but there isn’t much nourishment in it. You make the naive assumption that depressions are always followed by economic growth, which is in general true, but you ignore the fact that economies can and do collapse. Your stocks will be worth the paper they’re printed on if there is a collapse.

60

Puddybud, identifying northwest liberals who elected an underexperienced man to the presidency weighed down by an oversized egospews:

Michele Bachmann’s conviction that she is qualified to be president of the United States reveals her profound arrogance. The woman is completely crazy and anyone who would support her doesn’t care for this country’s future.

only stupid people are appointed Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Only stupid people are hired to teach Constitutional Law at a major US university. ————————————— he was President, not Editor, you effing nitwit. President is a popularity contest and not based upon academic merit.

@25 “A little over a week ago it was yelling loser beta boi’s own words talling gman that gays are less than 10% of the population. Yet with that piddly minority, we have to accept gay marriage or else.”

Indeed. To hell with blacks with their piddling percentage of the population. Historically disadvantaged and still disciminated against as a minority? Low percentage equals minority. Get it yet, Buckwheat? Like I should have to accept your fucking equality bullshit. And to hell with the disabled and their piddly percentage of the population. If some spaz in a wheelchair wants in my building, he can bring his own fucking ramp. Equality? It’s yours when you can stand up and fucking walk.

only stupid people are appointed Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Only stupid people are hired to teach Constitutional Law at a major US university. ————————————— he was President, not Editor, you effing nitwit. President is a popularity contest and not based upon academic merit.

@25 “A little over a week ago it was yelling loser beta boi’s own words talling gman that gays are less than 10% of the population. Yet with that piddly minority, we have to accept gay marriage or else.”

Indeed. To hell with blacks with their piddling percentage of the population. Historically disadvantaged and still disciminated against as a minority? Low percentage equals minority. Get it yet, Buckwheat? Like I should have to accept your fucking equality bullshit. And to hell with the disabled and their piddly percentage of the population. If some spaz in a wheelchair wants in my building, he can bring his own fucking ramp. Equality? It’s yours when you can stand up and fucking walk.

06/27/2011 at 1:31 pm

MUCH easier to Tom for the corporate overlords than put value into a shared community. The puddybitch is useless.

The Bachmann campaign staff might want to double-check their Google searches. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who on Monday launched her presidential campaign in her original hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, appears to be just a bit confused about the town’s history of favorite sons.

In an interview with Fox News, Bachmann boasted: “But what I want them to know, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”

About that spirit of “John Wayne” in Waterloo…

In fact, the actor John Wayne (real name, Marion Morrison) was from Iowa, but not from Waterloo — he was from Winterset, Iowa, about 120 miles away. But as it turns out, there was another “John Wayne” with some history in Waterloo: Serial killer John Wayne Gacy, known as the “Killer Clown,” who raped and murdered over 30 young men before he was finally incarcerated and put to death

“This event, Nelson said, had persuaded her to back Bachmann in the primary. ‘She’s just awesome,’ Nelson said, praising ‘her down-homeness. Her sensibility. She’s not one who’s better than anybody, she’s one of us.'”

What is it about Republicans that causes them to think that being average is a qualification for the most important job in the world? I, for one, certainly want a president who is a whole lot better than me.

@73 Another example of right-wing projection. Their talking heads are always bloviating about “the dumbing down of America”, while in practice they’re out to gut the education system to produce cookie-cutter work-bots who, as George Carlin put it, know just enough to be able to do their jobs but don’t question anything. Apparently that applies all the way to the Oval Office.

@73 I, for one, certainly want a president who is a whole lot better than me.

Well, nothing like setting the bar low!

Meanwhile, the HA herd are now singing the praises of Inslee. If you trust that judgment, recall how not that long ago they were singing the praises of Obama’s “Hope and Change” message to the rafters.

Former state senator Dean Johnson, who was the Republican minority leader during Bachmann’s stint in St. Paul, has said, “I don’t think I ever served with anybody who I mistrusted more, from either side of the aisle.”

Ouch. Bachmann also has a tendency to stretch the truth, or simply sidestep it altogether. Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact, recently told Minnesota Public Radio that he has never researched a Bachmann quote and found it to be true (the only major politician for which that’s the case).

I have not been following this blog that closely – but this malevolent fool (you voted…) is clearly a one-trick pony and not too intelligent.

When we compare Barack Obama to the republican midgets…no contest. Not one of them has the intelligence or guts of Obama. Go ahead – make the case for any of them…it is simply not there. They are all fools and midgets. In fact, does the entire republican party have a single “leader” who can articulate a plan for the country?

Are they too busy lying about the budget defict they caused (where were the self-proclaimed budget hawks when Bush took the largest budget surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history)?

How do you explain gutting medicare instead of taxing people making over 250K?

How do you explain wanting to gut SS instead of taxing companies who move jobs overseas or oil companies making excessive profits?

When you can seriously explain your positions instead of writing BS – then come back here. Until then, you are a little child trying to take pot-shots.

And poor Puddy, you are even more pathetic than you used to be. All you can do is name call – really sad….

AmericaFirst @ 64 (or thereabouts) tried to argue that Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review, not Editor. Not being able to match the credientials and accomplishments of our current President, they try to diminish them by lies.

The fact that wingnut tools like AmericaFirst repeat them shows how little they know about those accomplishments.

Law school is a graduate school which normally consists of three years of study AFTER the student completes a bachelor’s degree.

The top students from the first year’s class are invited to join the law review. Selection criteria varies from year-to-year, but typically involves the top 5% or 10% of a class, with a few slots left open for others to compete by writing a “publishable” article (knowns as “writing on to the Review” in popular slang).

During the second year of law school, those on the Law Review are “on the staff” of the Law Review, and have two tasks. The first is doing “spade work”, consisting of editing articles submitted for publication, including checking each citation for not only proper citation format, but also by pulling the original source materials and comparing the statements in the article to the original source material. The second task is to research and write a publishable “case note”, which is an article discussing the various aspects of a recent court decision including references to the history of the subject, treatment by different jurisdictions, and the impact of the case upon different areas of the law.

Assuming that they get past the second year tasks, the “staff” become the “editors” for the third year. In this task they supervise selection process from the ranks of the first-year students, supervise and cross-check the spade work of the second-year students, and provide editorial guidance and decision-making on the publication of both student case notes and articles submitted by law school faculty and others for publication.

Since this requires at least some organizational heirarchy, the incoming third-year students typically vote among themselves on officers for the most senior positions, with the top position being called by various names in different schools, such as “editor-in-chief” or “president”.

Nobody gets there merely on popularity. Students know that the reputation of their law school depends in part on the success and prestige of the Law Review, which may be read and quoted widely in court briefs for decades into the future. They take these responsibilities seriously. Just to be in the position to be considered for the top seat at the Law Review indicates a high level of competence and academic achievement.

There may be quite a few people in Congress with law degrees, but I’d be surprised if more than a handful were on the Law Review at all, much less President or Editor-in-Chief of the Review.

Republicans flip-flop back-and-forth on whether or not it’s important that a presidential candidate have prior military experience.

If their candidate served in the military and the Democratic candidate did not, they claim it’s the most important factor in voting for President.

But if their candidate didn’t serve, or if their service wasn’t on the same par as the Democratic candidate, they either claim it isn’t important, or they try to slander the Democratic candidate’s military service record.

Umm, no….Jefferson and Washington were actually slaveowners. And slavery did not end until the civil war – four score and seven years or more later….

John Quincy Adams was a “founding father” – umm, no….he was a nine year old boy when the declaration of independence was signed. Most nine year olds are not called “fathers”.

Wow, is Bachmann that stoopid or that naive. Her Regence degree is really showing through now. I sure hope she wins the republican nomination – she is just about as intelligent as most of her partisan fans, like Puddy.

Just as a reminder, here’s the Chickenhawk List again. buck-buck-cluck-a-cluck …

George W. Bush – went AWOL from National Guard Dick Cheney – 5 deferments, never served Phil Gramm – 4 deferments, never served John Ashcroft – 7 deferments, never served Jeb Bush – never served Karl Rove – never served Dennis Hastert – never served Bill Frist – never served Dick Armey – never served Tom DeLay – never served Newt Gingrich – never served Trent Lott – never served Saxby Chambliss – claimed “bad knee,” never served Mitch McConnell – never served Rick Santorum – never served Roy Blunt – never served Richard Shelby – never served Dana Rohrabacher – never served John M. McHugh – never served JC Watts – never served Jack Kemp – never served becaue of “knee problem” that didn’t keep him from playing in NFL for 8 years Arnold Schwarzenegger – went AWOL from Austrian army George Pataki – never served Spencer Abraham – never served John Engler – never served Elliott Abrams – never served Paul Wolfowitz – never served Vin Weber – never served Richard Perle – never served Douglas Feith – never served Rudy Guiliani – never served Kenneth Starr – never served Antonin Scalia – never served Clarence Thomas – never served Ralph Reed – never served Michael Medved – never served Charlie Daniels – never served Ted Nugent – never served Jon Kyl – never served Tim Hutchison – never served Christopher Cox – never served George Will – never served Chris Matthews – never served Bill O’Reilly – never served Sean Hannity – never served Rush Limbaugh – never served Michael Savage – never served Paul Gigot – never served Bill Bennett – never served Pat Buchanan – never served Pat Robertson – never served Bill Kristol – never served Ann Coulter – never served

Roger Rabbit: Served in the U.S. military twice, including a 13-month tour with an Army artillery battalion in Vietnam, and following the war, service in an Army Reserve infantry company.

God don’t make ’em any more patriotic than He made Roger Rabbit! And I’m only a rabbit. So what’s the GOPers excuse? Are they inbred shirkers, or mere cowards? Who knows? Who cares? Why would anyone vote for them?

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, bluntly told the media yesterday there will be another banking crisis.

“Rather than break up big banks, politicians decided to simply subject them to more oversight. Yet debate rages as to … whether regulators will have the backbone to follow through on their commitments. Republicans … are trying to dismantle the domestic financial reform law passed last year; banks are screaming …; and on the global level, regulators from some countries … are trying to weaken international accords.

“For Hoenig … the choice is clear …: break [too-big-to-fail banks] up into pieces that regulators can understand and … allow [them] … to fail.”

Oh yeah, one more thing, my stockbroker called me this morning and asked for my permission to move my hoard of investment cash out of money market funds into a Treasury fund. I told him yes. MMFs pay virtually no interest and they’re once again at risk of “breaking the buck” because of European debt woes and other factors. Yes, I realize even U.S. Treasuries may not be safe from default, thanks to Republican insistance on slashing social programs for the poor and middle class while protecting the special tax privileges of the wealthy, but if the U.S. government defaults then nothing else will be secure either, except maybe gold. And judging from the number of people flocking into gold, it doesn’t appear our financial system is held in real high regard by a lot of folks.

RR @ 95: Your list is in error on one point. Pat Robertson did serve during the Korean War. He was on a boat bound for Korea but was pulled off the boat when it docked in Japan. His father, a Republican Senator, didn’t want his boy serving in combat. Robertson DID go to Korea a bit later, but his service primarily consisted of managing the officer’s club – making sure it was well-stocked with liquor, etc. I’m not sure how much to blame Robertson for this, he claims he was unaware that it was his father’s influence which resulted in his change of orders.

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